Tue 30 Dec, 2008 10:22 am
I've been trying to explain BC and AD (or whatever the current alphabetic designations are) to Mo and I am obviously not doing a good job because he keeps bringing it up and he's still confused about it.
I've tried searching for a good basic timeline - dinosaurs here, people here, AD here - and not having any luck.
I pulled out some old art history books to show him that people were painting on walls 15,000 years ago but they weren't painting dinosaurs because the dinosaurs were already dead.
I've tried drawing a timeline with super basic info but I'm still having a hard time helping him make sense out of it.
Do you know any good, basic timelines that could help me out?
Please, no creationist time lines, I respect your beliefs, please respect mine.
Is he confused about the concept of chronological time and things in history happening both linearly and concurrently in different parts of the world, or is he confused about the BC/AD calendar concept and why it starts counting backwards at a certain time in history?
They are two related, but different concepts and it might help to tackle them separately. Maybe approach the BC/AD concept from a math point of view using positive and negative numbers and then move on from there to a historical timeline.
This website has some ideas that might be helpful:
Many, including me, now use BCE and CE, for before common era, and common era instead of BC and AD -
Not that that answers your main question re a good timeline chart.
Thanks! I'll check through that site and see if I can come up with an easy explaination.
I'm not really sure why the topic has come up and he isn't able to articulate his concern with it but I think it has something to do with the fact that we've been reading "A Wrinkle in Time".
My advice... forget the dinosaurs (for now) and focus on human history.
You are asking your kid to do a couple quite difficult intellectual tasks (that requires abstract thought) at the same time.
The big problem is imagining the amazingly large numbers involved when you put dinosaurs into the picture. To show the problem, let's imagine that you put those cave paintings you happened 15,000 years ago on the wall one end a room. Then let's put today on the other end-- let's say 12 feet away.
At this scale the dinosaurs disappeared 65,000,000 years ago. This event would have to be represented more then 10 miles down the road.
Of course, you might think that this scale is just too large... but it isn't. This would give 2 inches for the history of the US, and the Vietnam War would have happened a half inch ago. As you can see... there isn't much room to shrink this scale.
So my advice is to break up the concepts and deal with one at a time. This will make the concept much simpler. There are two easy ways to approach this.
1) My choice would be to start with today and go backwards. Put today on the wall (I would have Mo make the timeline, rather than buy it). Then put last year... and the year before and when Mo was born... and when you were born.... and whatever historical dates he knows about.
Then when you get 0... ask the obvious questions. Why is 0, the zeroth year? Were there any years before this?
Then go backwards from there.
When I started this project, I would choose a scale that would allow for 3000 years ago. This would get you back to the ancient Greeks, but not as far as Noah's flood (... joking).
2) The other option is to go forwards. Start 3000 years ago and work up toward Mo's birth and then today. This has the advantage of being the "correct" direction... but I think kids can get the going backwards thing.
Once Mo gets the whole timeline thing with human history... then you can talk about the Dinosaurs.
There is no year zero.
It goes straight from 1 BCE to 1 CE.
Yeah, you're right. I have always thought that was stupid.
But you're right.
That's great advice! Thank you!
I could use some well known landmarks to represent long ago times.
If I laid it out on lined notebook paper putting down his life history and my life times and granny's life times and pointed out that the cave paintings happened about where his school is and the dinosaurs lived about where Mr. B's office is it might help him put it in perspective.
I'm thinking part of the problem for him is that he knows so much about sharks -- including that sharks have been around since before dinosaurs. That might be what is complicating his understanding.
DrewDad! That's a great timeline. I love the way it pops up the dominant plants/animal life as you click through. Great find! Thanks!
I remember that my daughter was around 6 years old when she became
mesmerized with Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, and I had no idea why or where
she got the initial interest. We watched movies about them (plenty out there) and since both lived BC she somehow could make out the difference BC to AD - but all without mentioning actual numbers.